MUMBAI: Zee News Limited's (ZNL) consolidated net profit rose 18.2 per cent to Rs 70.2 million in the second quarter ended 30 September from a year earlier on the back of a 39.1 per cent rise in subscription revenues which more than offset a 9.7 per cent fall in its advertising revenue.

ZNL, which had decided to reduce its advertisement air time by 30 per cent beginning in the first quarter, has seen its advertising revenue come down to Rs 439.2 million in the second quarter from Rs 486.5 million a year earlier.

The news network's subscription revenue increased to Rs 222.6 million from Rs 160.1 million a year earlier. In the first quarter, ZNL’s subscription income was Rs 176 million.

ZNL's consolidated revenues for the quarter fell 11.6 per cent to Rs 700.3 million from Rs 792.6 million in the year before period. The company’s operating expenditure fell 12.4 per cent during the quarter to Rs 621.7 million from Rs 709.4 million a year earlier.

Consolidated Ebitda stood at Rs 78.6 million in the second quarter compared with Rs 83.2 million a year earlier.

The company said it has established a wholly owned subsidiary in the name of 24 Ghantalu News Ltd for housing its Telugu News channel ‘Zee 24 Gantalu’ and has invested initial capital of Rs 0.5 million in the subsidiary.

Earlier the company had decided to shutter Zee 24 Gantalu citing economic unviability as the reason.

ZNL MD Punit Goenka said, “The media industry continued to face slowdown issues in the second quarter especially in the months of July and August. ZNL always has had subscription revenue stream supplementing the ad revenues which helps the company counter any slowdown in the advertising industry. However, we expect that the advertising would be quite buoyant in the coming quarters.”